What a Weirdo

One of my favorite things about a kick in the ass by life is the few days/weeks you take to “re-evaluate” yourself. I literally can’t tell you how many times I have “re-evaluated” myself since the last time I posted something. I am quoting this because I try to approach this with a sense of humor and an air of lightness; life is supposed to be fun no matter how many times we pivot, right? I’ve been much better lately of letting go of rigidity, and it’s made my life a lot more enjoyable. Over the past year I do more flying by the seat of my pants, acting out of character and being ok with it, and letting myself give in to that “beautiful disaster” side of me because frankly, it isn’t going anywhere so why resist it? I’ll always be an extremist, but really it comes down to letting go of expectations in general. Mom, you were right. Again (ugh).

Anyways, below are a few take-aways since it seems as though I’m treating this “I’m back!” post as a reflection before I dive into way more fun topics like my favorite podcasts and talks I’ve heard, or the weird and crazy workouts I’ve been doing, or that I actually got a tattoo, or my obsession with the Iron Cowboy. Consider them updates on me, if you will, since my last time hanging out here on this blog.

-I signed up for a FULL IRONMAN. Next year. 2016. In June. Oh heck yeah (oh lord help me)

-I picked up yoga. Not like the boring, “this is supposed to be relaxing but I hate it” type but the “this room is heated and my legs actually hurt and I’m sweating my tail off” kind. I go to Yoga Flow SF, and I am obsessed. I feel great, move better, they play funky modern music and my favorite teacher, Howard, knows me by name. Never in my life did I think I’d be a yogi. It’s quite fun.

-I lost my Aunt Sandy and my Grandfather, which has taught me (or rather enlightened me) about how important my incredible family is and just how lucky I truly was to have meaningful relationships with 2 of the most amazing people that ever came into my life. Also, how much I miss them.

-My brother got engaged and I’m getting a beautiful, amazing sister. Along with her comes another insanely large and fun family. That totally outweighs the unfairness that the younger kid is getting married first, right?

How cute is she and how lucky am I?

-I spent my big 3-0 at Stagecoach, and made the LA Times for the 2nd year in a row!

(my father was so proud)

-I joined BetterWorks as the only recruiter and have found not just a great job, but a FAMILY. I’m in love with the people and my role, and have grown my career and presence in this tech world an insane amount.

BetterWorks team at our first ‘Goal Summit’

-I spent probably more $ on my car this year than I paid for it. Please, please don’t ask my why or how many things happened but they did. It was very real. And it was not super awesome.

-I found GoRuck, and thus an enormous community of weird fitness enthusiasts like myself who now are a huge part of my life in San Francisco

-I’m planning a solo trip to SE Asia in December, a bucket list trip of a lifetime, and I literally can. Not. Wait.

I want to talk about GoRuck today. So what is it? I get this question all the time. Well technically it is a branded line of military-esque backpacks/gear created by formal special forces folks. The company is now really well known for the challenges it puts on, led by a Cadre, that are either 6 (the “Light”), 12 (the “Challenge”), or 24 (the “Heavy”) hours in length. You carry weighted packs around (20# for girls, 35# for guys) and do all sorts of long-mileage walking, everything is about teamwork, you carry really heavy crap like weighted sandbags and logs, etc. It sounds really hard and masochistic, and it totally is, but is it SO fun. Fun for weirdos, you might be thinking (you might be right). Go Ruck allows you to meet some truly amazing people (we call ourselves “weirdos”, rightly so), you get really really…really tired, work hard, learn a lot about yourself, and get a taste of what it is like in the military. Here’s a few GoRuck event shots…

Memorial Day GoRuck class in May. This was an amazing and super athletic crew of weirdos!

They call this the “welcome party”…an hour or more of physical challenges to tire you out and test your grit before the event “begins”

The ladies and our Cadre (Doug) of GoRuck Reno Challenge in June

Since last November I have been hooked on the events and the community of people. I’ve literally never been to a Christmas Party that gets as rowdy as that group does. A bunch of work-hard, play-harder people? In. It is also how I found my workout family, “the sheepdogs”, but they deserve a post all their own so I’ll explain more about that later.

I’ve done 3 of the “Challenge” events (the 12 hour ones) this past year and I’ve got a 4th on the way. The holiday events (Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, September 11th) are quite special because there is a significant presence of honoring the fallen throughout the event. My 4th is the September 11th Challenge. It will be a great, hard 12 hours as well as a reunion of many of my GoRuck friends! I am also signing up for my very first HCLS – ready for this? Heavy, Challenge, Light, Scavenger. That is quite literally 42+ hours of working out. Do you see why I love this stuff? Nothing gets me more excited than really fun people doing crazy hard things followed by a crazy fun party (well sleep then party, but you get the gist).

On that note, it’s Friday and I have a lovely weekend ahead of me filled with excessive sleeping, long runs with Lucy, swimming the bay, yoga-ing, and drinking wine with my mom. 🙂

I train, and train hard for hard and long events. This blog will give you some insight into these events, my thoughts on preparing for them and other general musings about health, fitness and nutrition. Disclaimer I have no formal qualifications in any of these areas but take an experimental and analytical approach to improving my performance. You can also find me on Twitter (@ozwebb) or FaceBook (facebook.com/mark.webb)